lost the bravest of their sons, had fought and conquered, and still remained subservient to the aggrandisement of their enemies.

Rhode Island caught her spirit of manufacturing from the Beverly company, which had been formed in Massachusetts, and from this company she received her patterns of machinery and the mode of operating the machinery; though it must be acknowledged, that both states were indebted to foreign emigrants for instruction and assistance in spinning and weaving, and also in preparing the

cotton.

At the recent great meeting in Boston, on the subject of opening a rail road to Albany, the infant difficulties of domestic manufactures were thus adverted to by Mr. Hallet :

"We talk now of the future, in regard to railways, with doubt, as of an experiment yet to be tested, and many look upon the calculations of the sanguine as mere speculating dreams. Here is a new avenue about to be opened to the development of resources, and yet men hesitate to go forward. Let us test what we can reasonably anticipate in this, by what we know has happened, in the development of resources once deemed quite as visionary, through another medium of industry and enterprise-domestic manufactures. There is not an adult among us who cannot remember the time when it was a source of mortification to be dressed in homespun. Now, our own fabrics are among the best and richest stuffs of every day consumption, and the products of our looms are preferred even in foreign countries. Forty years ago, who would have dared to conjure up the visions of such manufacturing cities as Lowell, and Fall River, your Ware, Waltham, and the hundreds of flourishing villages which now constitute the most prosperous communities in this commonwealth? How small and feeble was the beginning of all this! In 1787, the first cotton mill in this state was got up in Beverly, by John Cabot and others, and in three years it was nearly given up, in consequence of the difficulties which the first beginning of the development of the vast resources of domestic industry, in our state, had to encounter. I hold in my hand," said Mr. Hallet, "a document of uncommon interest, on this subject, found in the files of the Massachusetts senate; which will show the early struggles of domestic manufactures, and the doubts entertained of their success, more forcibly than any fact that can be stated. It is the petition of the proprietors of the little Beverly cotton mill, in 1790, for aid from the legislature to save them from being compelled to abandon the enterprise altogether.

Petition of the Proprietors of the Beverly Cotton Manufacture. "To the senate and house of representatives of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, in general court assembled, June 2, 1790-The proprietors of the Beverly Cotton Manufactory beg leave to represent, that the establishment of a manufacture of cotton, in imitation of the most useful and approved stuffs which are formed of that material in Europe, and therce continually imported into this country at a very great expense, has been attempted by the said proprietors. This attempt commenced in the year 1787, from a consideration of the extensive public advantages to be obtained by it; and on this occasion your petitioners may be permitted to declare that in that view of the subject, the hazard of their private property, and the many obstacles which have since deprived them of every hope of present emolument to themselves, were overlooked. The design has been prosecuted, although it has proved much more arduous and expensive than was at first conceived, and under very discouraging circumstances, so far as to demonstrate that it is practicable; and that the manufacture, being once established, will be sufficiently lucrative to support and extend itself, and will afford not only a supply for domestic consumption, but a staple for exportation. The general use within the United States of imported cotton goods is well known to this court. It may be necessary to suggest for their reflection, that articles of this extensive consumption among us have been provided by foreigners, whose commerce we have thus encouraged, and that in this, as in other instances, we have been draining our country of a circulating medium to contribute to the wealth and populousness of Great Britain. Removing the occasion of this destructive traffic is not the only public advantage to be derived from the manufacture of cotton, as undertaken by the said proprietors. The raw material is procured in exchange for fish, the most valuable export in the possession of this state, and, at this time, in great need of encouragement. It must be evident that the cod fishery will be essentially encouraged by extending the demand for the imports to be obtained by it. This manufacture finds employment and support for a great number of persons, and among others for infirm women and children. In its immediate operation, and in the commerce and navigation connected with it, this honourable court will not fail to discover the beneficial influence of this manufacture, and especially upon the landed interest, by the increase of people and national wealth, which may be expected from it. The said proprietors, in the prosecution of their design, have necessarily incurred a variety of expenses and losses, which succeeding adventurers cannot be liable to. Among those experienced by us, are the following, viz:-The extraordinary price of machines unknown to our mechanics, intricate and difficult in their construction, without any model in the country, and only to be effected by repeated trials, and long attention; one instance among many of the kind is a carding machine, which cost the proprietors eleven hundred dollars, and which can now be purchased for two hundred dollars. The extraordinary loss of materials in the instruction of their servants and workmen, while so many are new, and the additional losses sustained by the desertion of these, when partly informed, and by the increase of wages to prevent it, in consequence of the competition of rival manufactories. The present want of that perfection and beauty in their goods, which long established manufactories can exhibit, from the skill of their workmen, but principally from the use of

machines which your petitioners have as yet found too expensive for them to procure; (meaning the Arkwright patents). But not to trouble your honours with details which would encroach too much on the time of this court, your petitioners have ever conceived that the government of this commonwealth would at least indemnify them for these extraordinary expenses and losses; which cannot be reimbursed by any future success of their design, since the models of machines, and the essential information obtained at their expense, is open to every succeeding adventurer. The expenditure of the said proprietors has already amounted to nearly the sum of £4,000, the value of their remaining stock is not equal to £2000, and a further very considerable advancement is absolutely necessary to obtain that degree of perfection in this manufacture, which alone can ensure its success. This necessary addition to their stock will enable the proprietors to rival in beauty, perfection, and cheapness, the European manufactures; and in that case, they shall willingly trust in the prudence and patriotism of their countrymen for a preference. But the proprietors having already hazarded, some their whole fortunes, and others very large sums, are obliged to declare, that, without aid from this honourable court, no further advancement can be made. And, mortifying as it is, they feel themselves in the necessity of relinquishing a design highly beneficial to the public, and undertaken by them from the purest motives. The intended aid by a grant of land, made by a former legislature to the said petitioners, has not in any degree answered the purpose of it. Your proprietors now pray, that, in lieu of that grant, some more real and ready assistance may be afforded them; submitting to the wisdom of the honourable court the particular mode of effecting it. Your petitioners conceive that the establishment of a manufacture, which gives encouragement to the most valuable branch of commerce possessed by this state, which must in its operation increase the number of people, and prevent those emigrations which have become so frequent, and are so dangerous to the landed interest; a manufacture which, once established, will retain amongst us large sums of our circulating medium, and greatly increase the wealth of our country, cannot fail of the attention and protecting influence of this honourable court, and in this confidence they still anticipate the success of their design; and as in duty bound will ever pray, &c.

"This petition," said Mr. Hallet, in a discussion of a proposed rail road, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, "was referred to the committee. of both houses for the encouragement of arts, agriculture, and manufactures, (of which Nathaniel Gorham was chairman,) and with all the lights which that intelligent committee then had on this subject, destined to become one of the greatest means of developing resources ever opened to national prosperity, they cautiously reported that 'from the best information we can obtain, we are of opinion that the said manufactory is of great public utility. But owing to the great expenses incurred in providing machines, and other incidents usually attending a new business, the said manufactory is upon the decline, and unless some public.

assistance can be afforded, is in danger of failing. Your committee therefore report, as their opinion, that the petitioners have a grant of one thousand pounds, to be raised in a lottery:' on condition that they give bonds that the money be actually appropriated in such a way as will most effectually promote the 'manufacturing' of cotton piece goods, in this commonwealth. Where now is the little Beverly cotton mill? And what has been the mighty development of resources in domestic industry in forty-five years, since the date of that petition, when the wisest men among us had got no farther than to a belief that the said manufactory was of great public utility! Is there any vision of the great public utility of railways," said Mr. Hallet, "which can go beyond what now is, and what will be in forty years, that can exceed in contrast what we know once was and now is, in the development of resources by the investment of capital and industry in domestic manufactures? The petitioners for the little Beverly cotton mill were doubtless deemed to be absurdly extravagant, when they hinted that the manufacture of cottons would one day, not only afford a supply for domestic consumption, but a staple for exportation. But what do we now see? Our domestic fabrics find a market in every clime, and vessels, lying at your wharves, are receiving these goods to export to Calcutta.

"The world is beginning to understand the true uses of wealth, to develope the resources of the country; and it is in great enterprises, which benefit the public more than those immediately concerned in them, that we have a practical demonstration of the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number. Much is said, and more feared, about the divisions of the rich and the poor. But in truth, in our happy institutions, we need have no poor, forming a distinct class among the citizens. Where is your populace, your rabble? is an enquiry which has often puzzled the foreigner who has passed through our streets when thronged by a multitude. We have no populace-no rabble, but free and independent citizens. What has made them so? The development of our resources. What has stopped the tide of emigration that once threatened to depopulate New England? The development of our resources. Go on developing these resources, and there need be no fear of setting the poor against the rich, for there will be no poor to set against them. All will be rich, for they will have enough; and no man is in reality any richer for possessing what he cannot use. When men of capital are found hoarding it, holding it back from enterprises, and cautious of doing any

thing to develope the resources of a community, there is then just cause to fear the operation of unequal and injurious distinctions. Take from industry and enterprise the means of acquiring wealth, cut off commerce, manufactures, canals, and railways, and you will lay the surest foundation possible for the despotism of one class over another. But open all these great resources to all— extend your facilities of intercourse throughout the country, and you cannot repress the energies of men; you cannot keep them poor long enough to mark them as a class. Your gradations in society will be stepped over, forward and backward, so often, that no distinct line can be kept up. This is the vast moral power, which is exerted on society by the investment of capital for public benefit, without unjust privileges; in great projects. Here are the true uses of wealth, in a government like ours, and this great specific lies at the bottom of the philosophy of our political economy. Develope the resources of the country-place the means of wealth within the reach of industry, and you produce the happy medium in society. All will then move forward evenly, as on the level of a rail road, with occasional inclined planes and elevations, but none that can stop the powerful locomotives which impel forward every New Englander-enterprise and moral energy."

The action on this petition, and the previous grant of land, are the first acts on record of direct legislative encouragement to domestic manufactures in the state of Massachusetts; and therefore it is a document of great interest highly honourable to the enterprise of the citizens of Massachusetts, and to the sagacity of her legislature. Some assistance appears to have been granted to Mr. Orr of Massachusetts, and it is thought to have been done previous to the grant to Beverly.

In 1786, Robert and Alexander Barr, brothers, from Scotland, were employed by Mr. Orr, to erect carding, spinning, and roping machines in his works at East Bridgewater, where they were made. On the 16th Nov. 1786, the general court of Massachusetts, to encourage the machinists, made them a grant of 2001., lawful money, for their ingenuity, and afterwards added to the bounty by giving them six tickets in the state land lottery in which there were no blanks.

In March 1787, Thomas Somers, (an English midshipman,) under the direction of Mr. Orr, also constructed a machine, or model, and by a resolve of the general court of the same date 201. lawful money, was placed in the hands of Mr. Orr to encourage him in the enterprise.

The above machines and model remained in Mr. Orr's possession, for the inspection of all disposed to see them; and he was requested by the